Description
Gripping at times, heartrending at others, What We All Long For is an ode to a generation of longing and identity, and to the rhythms and pulses of a city and its burgeoning, questioning youth.
Dionne Brand's multicultural infusion follows the stories of a close circle of twenty-something second-generations living in downtown Toronto--and the secrets they hide from their families. Tuyen is a lesbian avant-garde artist and the daughter of Vietnamese parents who've never recovered from losing one of their children while in the rush to flee Vietnam in the 1970s. She rejects her immigrant family's hard-won lifestyle, and instead lives in a rundown apartment with friends--each of whom is grappling with their own familial complexities and heartache. Tuyen is love with her best friend Carla, a biracial bicycle courier. Oku is a jazz-loving poet who, unbeknowst to his Jamaican-born parents, has dropped out of college. He is tormented by his unrequited love for Jackie, a gorgeous black woman who runs a hiphop clothing store. Meanwhile, Tuyen's lost brother, Quy--now a criminal in the Thai underworld--sets out for Toronto to find his long-lost family. Gripping at times, heart-wrenching at others, Dionne Brand's What We all Long For is a story of identity, love and loss--the universal experience of being human, and discovering the nature of our longing.Author: Dionne Brand
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Published: 11/01/2008
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780312377717
ISBN10: 0312377711
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Urban & Street Lit
- Fiction | Cultural Heritage
- Fiction | LGBTQ+ | Lesbian
About the Author
As a young girl growing up in Trinidad, DIONNE BRAND submitted poems to the newspapers under the pseudonym Xavier Simone, an homage to Nina Simone. She moved to Canada at age 17 and earned a degree in Philosophy and English, a Masters in the Philosophy of Education, and pursued PhD studies in Women's History but left the program to make time for creative writing.
Brand won the Governor General's Award for poetry and the Trillium Award in 1997 for Land to Light On. In 2003 she won the Pat Lowther Award for poetry for her book thirsty. Her novels include In Another Place, Not Here and At the Full and Change of the Moon. She lives in Toronto.This title is not returnable